1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a load driving apparatus for driving a load.
2. Description of Related Art
For example, a vehicle-mounted load driving apparatus is connected between a power source such as a generator or a battery, and a load such as a various lamp and a various motor, and includes a switching section for switching electric power supplied from the power source in order to drive the load. When the switching section is turned ON, power will be fed from the power source to the load via the load driving apparatus, and when the switching section is turned OFF, power will not be fed from the power source to the load.
In recent years, in consideration of environments and in order to keep vehicle fuel cost down, various energy-conservation (hereinafter referred to as “energy-saving”) measures have been proposed. Further, as a switching section, a mechanical relay has been used conventionally, but a semiconductor relay is used nowadays. Thus, it is conceivable that instead of driving of loads by constant turning ON of a semiconductor relay (which will hereinafter be referred to as “normal driving”), energy-saving measures concerning a load driving apparatus include driving of load by appropriate switching of ON/OFF of a semiconductor relay (which will hereinafter be referred to as “energy-saving driving”), thereby reducing electric power supplied to the load, and consequently reducing electric power consumption of loads (hereinafter referred to as “load electric power consumption”).
Actually, as a residual fuel amount of a vehicle is decreased, a total vehicle weight is reduced, thus improving fuel efficiency. However, when a residual fuel amount is small, a vehicle might run out of fuel before the vehicle reaches its destination, and therefore, a driver wastefully fills the vehicle up with fuel, resulting in fuel efficiency degradation.
In order to obviate such inconvenience, there is disclosed a refueling reference information providing method for providing to a driver, information indicative of a relation between a residual fuel amount of a vehicle and fuel efficiency (see Japanese Application Laid-Open No. 2007-272798). This information includes: a plurality of different refuel amounts; travelable distances of a vehicle when the vehicle is refueled by the respective refuel amounts; and expected fuel efficiency when the vehicle travels the distances.
Using the provided information as reference, the driver, refuels the vehicle by an amount by which the driver will avoid running out of fuel before the vehicle reaches its destination without having to fill up the vehicle with fuel. As a result, the fuel efficiency of the vehicle is improved, which eventually promotes vehicle energy saving.